A curious crowd packed the Senoia City Hall Monday night to watch as the city's planning commission unveiled its new zoning ordinances.

When the long day's journey into night ended shortly after 11 p.m., the crowd learned the city council will hold its first read on the changes this Monday, which should lead to another emotion-packed meeting.

Planning commission chairman Darlene Stanley told the crowd the planning commission had struggled over some of these changes for over a year and were anxious to hear the public's response to the new ordinances.

For the next three hours, the planning commission and the city council heard from residents who did not want to see some of the changes implemented. The two lightning road issues were lot size and a new category, historic town center.

The town is considering bumping up its lot size from one-half acre to a full acre, primarily because the city does not have a city-wide sewerage system. Some residents, however, interpreted it as the city trying to get rid of residents who currently had homes on half-acre lots.

"You're zoning the poor people out of Senoia," said an angry Brenda Campbell.

Stanley, along with zoning attorney Frank Jenkins, explained that nobody who currently lived on a half-acre tract would be required to be additional property, which seemed to cool some of the hot feelings engulfing the room.

The other issue which drew the ire of the Senoia business community was the historic town center zoning classification for the city's downtown area. The new classification would limit the types of businesses that could be located downtown, which did not sit well with the business leaders.

"You're changing an adding a whole other layer to downtown property. Just give me a zoning classification and let me determine if a business is feasible there. I don't want Senoia to become business unfriendly," he said.

The business leaders also took exception to have a 100-ft. setback imposed on all new development on Ga. Highway 16.

"There's nothing historic about Highway 16,' said grocery store owner Ellis Crook.

The planning commission did modify the setback to 75 ft, after discussing the idea further.

After the planning commission recommended the council accept the new zoning recommendations, the city council conducted a called meeting to discuss the ordinances.